Ohio remains of 2 infants to be analyzed in Texas

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) – Skeletal remains of two infants found in a dead Ohio woman’s mobile home have been sent for analysis at the University of North Texas, which investigators hope will yield more clues about the bones’ unknown backstory.

Police said it doesn’t appear the children died recently, and nothing found in the home or uncovered in interviews with the 66-year-old woman’s relatives and friends explained the remains.

A man found the remains in a locked blue footlocker last month while cleaning out his mother’s home in North Canton, about 45 miles southeast of Cleveland. The woman died in late November, police said.

“The son remembered moving the trunk from Louisville five years ago, when she moved into her mobile home here,” police Chief Stephan Wilder said. “That is the only connection I still have.”

Wilder said the bones were small enough to fit in someone’s hand. The remains, including a partial skull and other small bones, were in a plastic bag that was in the worn locker with a small blanket and other items, he said.

Authorities initially planned to send the bones to forensic anthropologists at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania, but the county coroner instead chose North Texas because it has both an anthropology department and a mitochondrial DNA lab to test the bones, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

The office of Stark County Coroner P.S. Murthy delayed sending the remains until this week to avoid potential shipping problems at the height of the holiday season, the newspaper said.

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